Australians Spent Less On Flowers And Restaurants This Valentine's Day

Australians continued their post-Christmas belt-tightening in February which extended to even Valentine’s day, according to PocketBook.

Data aggregated from 50,000 users of the free app Pocketbook in Australia shows Valentines Day was muted compared to 2013 despite falling on a Friday.

Spending at florists, restaurants, bars and taxis was down compared to Valentine’s Day in 2013.

Spending at bottleshops rose 20%, suggesting that love birds either went to a BYO restaurant or stayed at home.

However, spending on jewellery was twice as much in 2014.

Emerging strongly was Uber.com, a taxi competitor in the form of an app which connects passengers with drivers. Spending on Uber.com jumped 77% on the Valentine’s day Friday.

This table compares spending between 2013 and 20-14 Valentine’s Days:

The fall in Valentine’s Day spending could be more about couples’ changing preferences than about the popularity of dining out; according to yesterday’s government retail sales data, Australians are spending much more on cafes, restaurants and catering now than in previous years.

Pocketbook’s February data indicated a continuing tightening on spending: credit card repayments again outweighed credit spending, with a net effect of $49 ($49 more repayment per person).

With a short month, mortgage and rent accounted for less of the spending pie (20%, down 5%), together with bills and car cost is close to half of Australian spending.